Does IGF-1 shape life-history trade-offs? : Opposite associations of IGF-1 with telomere length and body size in a free-living bird

Funding. PB, FC and AS were supported by a Carnegie Research Incentive Grant (RIG007773). BM was supported by a Godfrey Hewitt Mobility Award from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. ÁZL was supported by a grant from the National Research and Development Office (K139021).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Measuring telomere length and telomere dynamics in evolutionary biology and ecology

Telomeres play a fundamental role in the protection of chromosomal DNA and in the regulation of cellular senescence. Recent work in human epidemiology and evolutionary ecology suggests adult telomere length (TL) may reflect past physiological stress and predict subsequent morbidity and mortality, independent of chronological age. Several different methods have been developed to measure TL, each offering its own technical challenges. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the advantages and drawbacks of each method for researchers, with a particular focus on issues that are likely to face ecologists and evolutionary biologists collecting samples in the field or in organisms that may never have been studied in this context before. We discuss the key issues to consider and wherever possible try to provide current consensus view regarding best practice with regard to sample collection and storage, DNA extraction and storage, and the five main methods currently available to measure TL. Decisions regarding which tissues to sample, how to store them, how to extract DNA, and which TL measurement method to use cannot be prescribed, and are dependent on the biological question addressed and the constraints imposed by the study system. What is essential for future studies of telomere dynamics in evolution and ecology is that researchers publish full details of their methods and the quality control thresholds they employ

Foster rather than biological parental telomere length predicts offspring survival and telomere length in king penguins

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to the field assistants who helped us with data collection in 2012-2013. This research was supported by the French Polar Research Institute (IPEV; program 119 ECONERGY), by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), by an International Emerging Action Grant (IEA n°203036) from the CNRS, and by the AXA Research Fund (post-doctoral fellowship to VA Viblanc). We are grateful to S Rogers and 5 anonymous reviewers for constructive and useful comments on previous drafts of the paper. DATA ACCESSIBILITY The data associated with this manuscript are available online at figshare doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12249902 (Viblanc et al. 2020).Peer reviewedPostprin

Does IGF-1 Shape Life-History Trade-Offs? Opposite Associations of IGF-1 With Telomere Length and Body Size in a Free-Living Bird

Hormonal pathways have been proposed to be key at modulating how fast individuals grow and reproduce and how long they live (i.e., life history trajectory). Research in model species living under controlled environment is suggesting that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which is an evolutionarily conserved polypeptide hormone, has an important role in modulating animal life histories. Much remains, however, to be done to test the role played by IGF-1 in shaping the phenotype and life history of animals in the wild. Using a wild long-lived bird, the Alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba), we show that adults with higher levels of IGF-1 had longer wings and shorter telomeres. Hence, telomeres being a proxy of lifespan in this species, our results support a potential role of IGF-1 at shaping the life-history of wild birds and suggest that IGF-1 may influence the growth-lifespan trade-off

Foster rather than biological parental telomere length predicts offspring survival and telomere length in king penguins

Because telomere length and dynamics relate to individual growth, reproductive investment and survival, telomeres have emerged as possible markers of individual quality. Here, we tested the hypothesis that, in species with parental care, parental telomere length can be a marker of parental quality that predicts offspring phenotype and survival. In king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), we experimentally swapped the single egg of 66 breeding pairs just after egg laying to disentangle the contribution of prelaying parental quality (e.g., genetics, investment in the egg) and/or postlaying parental quality (e.g., incubation, postnatal feeding rate) on offspring growth, telomere length and survival. Parental quality was estimated through the joint effects of biological and foster parent telomere length on offspring traits, both soon after hatching (day 10) and at the end of the prewinter growth period (day 105). We expected that offspring traits would be mostly related to the telomere lengths (i.e., quality) of biological parents at day 10 and to the telomere lengths of foster parents at day 105. Results show that chick survival up to 10 days was negatively related to biological fathers' telomere length, whereas survival up to 105 days was positively related to foster fathers' telomere lengths. Chick growth was not related to either biological or foster parents' telomere length. Chick telomere length was positively related to foster mothers' telomere length at both 10 and 105 days. Overall, our study shows that, in a species with biparental care, parents' telomere length is foremost a proxy of postlaying parental care quality, supporting the "telomere - parental quality hypothesis.

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics' resources: focus on curated databases

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (www.isb-sib.ch) provides world-class bioinformatics databases, software tools, services and training to the international life science community in academia and industry. These solutions allow life scientists to turn the exponentially growing amount of data into knowledge. Here, we provide an overview of SIB's resources and competence areas, with a strong focus on curated databases and SIB's most popular and widely used resources. In particular, SIB's Bioinformatics resource portal ExPASy features over 150 resources, including UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, ENZYME, PROSITE, neXtProt, STRING, UniCarbKB, SugarBindDB, SwissRegulon, EPD, arrayMap, Bgee, SWISS-MODEL Repository, OMA, OrthoDB and other databases, which are briefly described in this article

Data from: Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother

A growing body of studies is showing that offspring telomere length (TL) can be influenced by the age of their parents. Such a relationship might be explained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alteration of early growth conditions in species providing parental care. In a long-lived bird with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift (Apus melba), we exchanged an uneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings between pairs as part of a brood size manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching, which allowed investigation of the influence of the age of both their biological and foster parents on offspring TL, after controlling for the manipulation. Nestling TL was negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reduced broods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilized by gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell division history or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females may have provided poorer parental care to their offspring

Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother

International audienceA growing body of studies is showing that offspring telomere length (TL) canbe influenced by the age of their parents. Such a relationship might beexplained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alterationof early growth conditions in species providing parental care. In a long-livedbird with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift (Apus melba), we exchanged anuneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings between pairs as part of a broodsize manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching,which allowed investigation of the influence of the age of both their biologicaland foster parents on offspring TL, after controlling for the manipulation.Nestling TL was negatively related to the age of their biological father andfoster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reducedbroods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilizedby gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell divisionhistory or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females mayhave provided poorer parental care to their offspring

Swifts-2017-chicks

Excel file ocntaining the qPCR telomere measurements made on swift chicks in 2004 and 200